Our first event of 2006 was held on January 1st with a fundraising ride to benefit our Velo-Kids program, $2,240.00 was raised. Thanks to everyone who made the afternoon a success.

Over the coming weeks we will be kicking off our fund-raising campaign for 2006 to help cover some of the costs of running the building. We will be able to issue tax receipts for each donation to the Velodrome, The track wishes to thank the Ontario Cycling Association for their assistance with the Sport is Development Fund.

The Velodrome will be expanding the Velo-Kids Program to give our youngest riders more of an opportunity to ride and master the track. More information will be available soon.

It's great to see so many new faces at the Velodrome at our Recreation sessions, In the coming weeks the City of London Youth Program will begin their Track 1 & 2 sessions and we should see many new riders to all of our rides.

I have expanded the Track 4 sessions to include more skills and drills on Wednesday & Thursday nights; these will begin this week. Thursday will see more timed efforts for the riders who want to start bring their time down in the Kilo & Pursuit. Come out to find out what you are missing.

On the racing front we have a very busy schedule of racing for the winter:

The third annual St. Catharines cycling club hockey game took place on January 3 in Thorold, Ontario. It was once again a fierce battle between the red and white. Once again the starting line brought notables for the white team in Gord (not Howe) Singleton, Dan Lefebvre, Mark Goveia, and Rob Hiscock, and for the red was Tim Lefebvre, Kirby Klassen and break out star Marv Srigley. Healthy scratches for the game however included Steve Bauer and Buck Miller.

The affair seemed to be more one sided then in past years with the Red Team bringing a relentless attack with the youth from the Korten brothers, and an unknown "ringer" who scored 4 goals. The white was able to mount a intermittent attack with notable goals coming from James Blackburn, Craig McCarthy, Chris Balogh and Brian Lee.

Once again former NHL'er, Jim Bedard took time away from his duties with the Detroit Red Wings to back stop this all-star line up with Nathan Chown showing equal dominance in his end of the ice after a two year hiatus from playing goal.

Plans are in the making for a run at the World Pond Hockey Championships as we speak.

PS. The SCCC is willing to take on any other club out there in a spirited hockey game, anytime, anywhere, JUST BRING IT! (beer that is)